From the Waste Land by Clare Rhoden

Author:Clare Rhoden [Rhoden, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, ghost tales, horror, Dystopia, science fiction
Publisher: PS Publishing
Published: 2023-05-01T06:00:00+00:00

Lidless Eyes That See

Geneve Flynn

All through Eliot’s poem, there are themes of brokenness and loss: of culture, of memory, of connection. He wrestles with war, moral decay, and resurrection. These grim images created a backdrop for my horror tale about a woman and a boy, and the story they tell each other, over and over again, as they try to survive a post-apocalyptic world.

For my story, I was inspired by Eliot’s line “Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.” Instead of a weary couple battling insomnia, I imagined a character waiting with dread for a final knock. I was also struck by the line “Who is the third who walks always beside you?” I began to ask myself if we are truly alone, and who might walk beside us in silence. This gave me my first line: “We are silently going mad, the boy and I.”

I dreamt the opening image of a boy handing a woman a silk handkerchief containing broken dentures. At the time of writing, I also took a workshop with Kaaron Warren, one of Australia’s most celebrated horror authors, and the motifs of the teeth and iron spike were born.

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